TRIGGER DEVICE FOR MOBILE COMPUTING DEVICE

• US 20140049120A1
• Filed: 03/08/2013
• Published: 02/20/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/20/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intermec IP Corporation (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Intermec IP Corporation (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: Kohtz, Robert A., Austin, Rickey, Cook, Joseph
• Granted Patent: US 9,088,281 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 307/117
• CPC Class Codes: G05G 1/02 Controlling members for hand actuation by linear movement, e.g. push buttons
• CPC Class Codes: G05G 9/047 the controlling member being movable by hand about orthogonal axes, e.g. joysticks for switches H01H25/04
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/016 Input arrangements with force or tactile feedback as computer generated output to the user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0338 with detection of limited linear or angular displacement of an operating part of the device from a neutral position, e.g. isotonic or isometric joysticks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0346 with detection of the device orientation or free movement in a 3D space, e.g. 3D mice, 6-DOF [six degrees of freedom] pointers using gyroscopes, accelerometers or tilt-sensors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0362 with detection of 1D translations or rotations of an operating part of the device, e.g. scroll wheels, sliders, knobs, rollers or belts
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 17/94 characterised by the way in which the control signals are generated

Abstract

A mobile computing device includes a processor and a trigger device operatively attached to the mobile computing device and configured to generate a mechanical vibration pattern for selectively actuating the mobile computing device. A trigger interface, illustratively an accelerometer, is configured to convert the mechanical vibration pattern into an electrical signal pattern. The processor is configured to actuate a mobile computing function depending on the mechanical vibration pattern generated by the trigger device. A table of properties stored in memory correlates the mechanical vibration generated by the trigger device with a specific mobile computing function. The trigger device may include a plurality of trigger parts; and the mechanical vibration pattern generated by the trigger device may include multiple bits of data generated by the plurality of trigger parts. The mobile computing device may be in a candy bar, clam shell, or other form factor and may include a removable handle.

Claims

1. A mobile computing device comprising;

a first processor;

a trigger device operatively attached to the mobile computing device configured to generate a mechanical vibration pattern for selectively actuating the mobile computing device;

a trigger interface configured to detect and convert the mechanical vibration pattern into an electrical signal pattern;

wherein the first processor is configured to actuate a mobile computing function depending on the mechanical vibration pattern generated by the trigger device in response to the electrical signal pattern.

2. The mobile computing device of claim 1:

wherein the trigger interface comprises an accelerometer device.

3. The mobile computing device of claim 1 further comprising:

a memory configured to store a table of properties correlating the mechanical vibration pattern generated by the trigger device with a specific mobile computing function.

4. The mobile computing device of claim 3:

wherein the specific mobile computing function is taken from the group consisting of a scanner function and an RFID function.

5. The mobile computing device of claim 1:

wherein the mobile computing device is a mobile computing device taken from the group consisting of a handheld terminal, a lap top computer, a smart phone, a handheld personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless mobile phone, a pager, and an industrial grade mobile computer with scanning and/or RFID functionality.

6. The mobile computing device of claim 5:

wherein a process for decoding the mechanical vibration pattern is taken from the group consisting of amplitude and level analysis, frequency (spectral) analysis;

noise and distortion analysis;

pulse and transition analysis;

time domain analysis, and tone measurements.

7. The mobile computing device of claim 6:

wherein a process for decoding the mechanical vibration pattern is taken from the group consisting of signal processing;

digital filtering processing;

convolution and correlation processing;

frequency domain processing;

joint time-frequency analysis signal processing;

sampling/resampling processing;

signal generation processing;

spectral analysis processing;

transform processing;

time domain processing; and

wavelet and filter bank processing.

8. The mobile computing device of claim 1:

wherein the trigger device includes a plurality of trigger parts; and

wherein the mechanical vibration pattern generated by the trigger device includes multiple bits of data generated by the plurality of trigger parts.

9. A mobile computing device comprising;

a terminal device part including a first processor;

a handle part connected to the terminal device part, the handle part including a trigger device operatively attached to the handle part and configured to generate a mechanical vibration pattern for selectively actuating the mobile computing device; and

wherein the first processor is configured to actuate a mobile computing function depending on the mechanical vibration pattern generated by the trigger device.

10. The mobile computing device of claim 9:

further comprising a trigger interface configured to detect and convert the mechanical vibration pattern into an electrical signal pattern; and

wherein the first processor is configured to actuate a mobile computing function depending on the mechanical vibration pattern generated by the trigger device in response to the electrical signal pattern.

11. The mobile computing device of claim 10:

wherein the handle part is removable from the terminal part of the mobile computing device.

12. The mobile computing device of claim 11:

wherein the terminal device part includes a case;

wherein the handle part includes a case; and

wherein the vibration pattern generated by the trigger device travels along the case of the handle part to the case of the terminal device part.

13. The mobile computing device of claim 12:

wherein the trigger interface further comprises an accelerometer device included in the handle part of the mobile computing device, and wherein the handle part of the mobile computing device includes a second processor configured to decode the mechanical vibration pattern.

14. The mobile computing device of claim 13 further comprising:

a memory configured to store a table of properties correlating the electrical signal pattern detected by the signal interface with a specific mobile computing function.

15. The mobile computing device of claim 14:

wherein the table of properties in the memory includes properties correlating electrical signal patterns generated by the trigger interface in response to the mechanical vibration generated by the trigger device with a first set of specific mobile computing functions.

16. The mobile computing device of claim 15:

wherein the first set of specific mobile computing functions is taken from the group consisting of a scanner function, an RFID function, and a power source function.

17. The mobile computing device of claim 15:

wherein the first set of specific mobile computing functions includes a function taken from the group consisting of the number of activations of the trigger device and the speed of activation of the trigger device.

18. The mobile computing device of claim 15:

Wherein the trigger device includes a plurality of trigger parts; and

wherein the mechanical vibration pattern generated by the trigger device includes multiple bits of data generated by the plurality of trigger parts.

19. The mobile computing device of claim 16:

wherein the terminal part further comprises a display unit configured to display a message based on the mechanical vibration pattern generated by the trigger device.

20. A method of actuating a mobile computing functionality in a mobile computing device, the method comprising the steps of:

activating a trigger device operatively attached to a mobile computing device;

generating a mechanical vibration pattern for selectively actuating the mobile computing device;

detecting the mechanical vibration pattern;

converting the mechanical vibration pattern into an electrical signal pattern; and

actuating the mobile computing device depending on the mechanical vibration pattern generated by the trigger device.